Sam's Club Selling Private-label Red Wine

Briefcase - News of note

March 22, 2005

Sam's Club, a warehouse club owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has started selling private-label red wines to increase its selection and compete with rival Costco Wholesale Corp. Sam's Club began offering the red wines in 370 stores earlier this month, Wal-Mart said in a statement Monday. The Australian Shiraz and Spanish Rioja will sell for about $12 and $13, respectively. Sam's Club, the No. 2 warehouse-club operator, introduced its first private-label white wine late last year, selling out the line in three months.

LOCAL

FDN JOINS IN PURCHASE OF TELECOM

FDN Communications of Maitland and H.I.G. Capital, a Miami private equity firm, jointly acquired Supra Telecom, a South Florida residential telecom provider, for an undisclosed amount. Supra has 250,000 residential phone customers, primarily in South Florida. FDN, which now primarily serves business telecom customers, will has a 50 percent interest in Supra, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday. FDN said that it plans to add about 100 new employees as a result of the acquisition.

STATE

WINN-DIXIE WANTS TO SELL JET

Struggling supermarket chain Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., is seeking bankruptcy court permission to sell its corporate jet for $15.18 million, according to a court filing by the company. If approved at a March 30 hearing in federal bankruptcy court in New York, Winn-Dixie plans to sell the 2002 Gulfstream G-200 and two Pratt and Whitney engines to Molinaro Koger Inc., a hotel real estate advisory company based in McLean, Va. Winn-Dixie filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last month.

NATION

HUMOR MAGAZINE IS SOLD

Cracked, a humor magazine that began publishing in 1958, was acquired by a group of investors who plan to expand the brand to television and the Internet. New York-based Cracked Entertainment Inc. said Monday that it also will redesign the magazine and turn it into a monthly. Terms of the purchase from Mega Media Corp. weren't disclosed. "We're trying to be the magazine of choice for the people who watch the Daily Show," said Monty Sarhan, who will become publisher and chief executive officer. The magazine is now published bi-monthly, Sarhan said.

GM SHIFTS PRODUCTION

General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, is canceling a new line of rear-wheel-drive cars scheduled for North America in 2008 to concentrate resources on models that will go on sale earlier. GM is shifting personnel and funds from the North American models that are to be built off its Zeta platform, spokesman Pat Morrissey said Monday. GM uses Greek letters to label families of vehicles that share major structural parts, including a chassis. The resources are being shifted "to two product programs closer to launch," Morrissey said, without providing specifics.

SNAPFISH IS ACQUISITION TARGET

Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to acquire online photo services startup Snapfish, the computer maker announced Monday. HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., hopes to boost sales of its popular photo printers and ink by targeting the San Francisco-based company's 13 million members. Snapfish's Web site contains roughly 350 million photos, which users can organize into digital albums, share with other members, turn into calendars or mouse pads, and have printed for as little as 15 cents per photo. The companies would not disclose terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close in April.

WORLDCOM BOARD MEMBER TO PAY

The last former WorldCom board member in a lawsuit brought by investors in the collapsed company agreed on Monday to pay $4.5 million out of his own pocket to settle the claim. The settlement reached by Bert Roberts brings the total to $24.75 million that 12 former board members are paying personally to settle the class action suit. Insurers for the 12 are kicking in an additional $36 million. The investor lawsuit alleges the board members, auditor Arthur Andersen and major investment banks that underwrote WorldCom securities should have known in advance about the fraud that sank WorldCom in 2002. The suit is led by New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, acting as trustee of the state employees' retirement system.

EARNINGS

Carnival Corp.'s first-quarter earnings surged 70 percent, helped by higher ticket prices and improving business, but the world's largest cruise company warned Monday that increasing oil prices could affect its future performance. For the three months ended Feb. 28, the Miami-based company earned $345 million, or 42 cents a share, compared to $203 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenues were nearly $2.4 billion, up from $1.98 billion. Carnival operates 12 brands, including Princess Cruises, Cunard Line and Carnival Cruise Lines. It has 77 ships.

Nortel Networks Corp. said Monday that results in the third quarter were slightly below its own forecast. The Canadian maker of telecommunications and networking gear said it lost $259 million, or 6 cents a share, on revenue of $2.18 billion in the fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30. The company had expected revenue of $2.27 billion. In the year-ago quarter, it earned $131 million, or 3 cents a share, on revenue of $2.34 billion.

KB Home delivered higher-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results that showed no signs of a slowdown in the booming home-building sector. The Los Angeles-based builder on Monday reported net income of $122.7 million, or $2.82 a share, up from $74.2 million, or $1.75 a share, a year earlier. The results surpassed the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call of $2.57 a share. Revenue rose to $1.64 billion from $1.35 billion.